Tort claim accuses Boise School District of violating transgender bathroom law
The family of a former Boise High School student has filed a legal complaint against the Boise School District, saying that it allowed a transgender girl to use the women’s bathroom and left their daughter traumatized.
The school district responded by saying that the state law being cited in the tort claim was not enforceable at the time.
Representing the family, the Idaho Family Policy Center filed the tort claim Monday, stating that the school district “had a duty to follow state law … and to protect students, including (the) Claimant, from harm, including invasions of privacy in sex-specific restrooms.”
A tort claim is a precursor to a lawsuit, which allows the government entity time to respond. The Boise School District has 90 days for its response, per state code.
The Idaho law at issue, Senate Bill 1100, was enacted in 2023. It bans transgender students from using restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth. It also allows students to sue their school if they encounter a transgender student in a bathroom that doesn’t align with their sex at birth.
But that law was challenged in court, and an appeals court prevented it from going into effect for well over a year’s time.
In the complaint, obtained by the Idaho Statesman, IFPC states that during the 2024-25 school year, the family’s student had two encounters with a transgender student in the women’s restroom. The student went to school officials about her discomfort and experienced “extreme anxiety” from the situation, according to the claim.
The student eventually left Boise High and enrolled in another high school.
The tort claim asserted that school officials informed the student’s family that the transgender girl had permission to use the female-designated restrooms, as that student was on a gender-support plan.
In a statement, the Boise School District said that during the time relevant to this case, it was barred by federal court from enforcing SB 1100.
Background and legal challenges to Idaho anti-transgender bill
In October 2023, a few months after the bill took effect, enforcement of the law was put on hold with a temporary injunction granted by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, issued while the law was being challenged in the case Roe v. Critchfield.
In late March this year, that court rejected a preliminary injunction being put in place, leading to some disagreement over when the state could enforce the law, the Idaho Capital Sun reported.
Regardless, in the tort complaint, the family stated that the alleged incidents occurred on Feb. 5, 2025, and sometime in January 2025, when the appeals court’s original hold was in place.
“The tort claim alleges the District should have been following state law, but fails to acknowledge that it was barred from doing so by a Federal Court,” the school district statement read.
The district said the legal process would provide clarity to the community.
“We want to reassure our community that the Boise School District takes seriously its responsibility to provide a safe and supportive environment for all students, and following the law,” the statement read.
SB 1100 is still under review at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals with the case SAGA v. Critchfield (formerly Roe v. Critchfield). Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ+ advocacy law firm, is arguing that the law violates the 14th Amendment and Title IX by discriminating against transgender students.
March 20 was when the 9th Circuit released the opinion denying a longer injunction on SB 1100 in the Roe case. But it wasn’t until June 2 that the 9th Circuit issued a mandate that the Idaho law could be enforced, Lambda Legal senior counsel Peter Renn told the Statesman in an email.
